Serbian President Alexander Vucic and LG Group Chairman Christopher Koo join others, including  LS Vice Chairman Lee Kwang-woo and SPSX executives in a ground-breaking ceremony for Super Excess’s production operation in Zrehanin, Serbia. (Photo: LS Group)

LS Group is setting up a production operation in Serbia to tap the European winding wire market. Winding wire is a copper or aluminum wire coated with a layer of insulation.

Superior Essex, the U.S. cable making company of LG Group, broke ground for a project to build a winding wire plant in Zrehanin, about 90 km north of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, on March 16. The project calls for investing 18.5 million euros (25 billion won) to build a winding wire plant covering 14,000 sq. meters in floor space on a lot of 40,000 sq. meters. Additional investments will be studied, they said. 

SPX plans to secure 42 production lines capable of producing 12,000 tons of winding wire yearly by the end of the year and begin production next year. 

Among those present at the groundbreaking ceremony were Serbian President Alexander Vucic, LG Group Chairman Christopher Koo, LS Vice Chairman Lee Kwang-woo, SPSX executives, and Zrejanin Mayor Cedomir Janjic. 

President Vucic extended thanks to LS group’s investments. Serbia will provide full support to create an environment suitable for foreign companies’ investment, he added. LS Group Chairman Koo said LS has decided to establish a production operation in Eastern Europe, which is emerging as a new market to make an inroad into the European market. This partnership is hoped to make Serbia an Eastern European winding wire production hub, he added. 

In his New Year’s message, Chairman Koo stressed the importance of laying a stepping stone to compete with global leaders and become a global company by upgrading its overseas businesses further than now.

Last year, LS Cable & System set up an EV part production operation in Poland and a sales operation in France. LSIS is accelerating efforts to strengthen its overseas presence by dedicating the solar-ESSHokkaido Chitose Solar Power Plant. 

LS Group Extends Support to Cooperative Firms under LS Partnership

LS Networks advanced the payment of supplies worth 8.2 billion won to its cooperative partners prior to the last Lunar New Year Holiday. Likewise, LS Business Group is accelerating efforts to build up a shared growth regime with its cooperative business partners, true to the group’s management tenet “LS Partnership.”

The group extends “shared growth” with cooperative business partners. LS Cable & System and KEB Hana Bank each contributed 20 billion won to form a 40 billion won fund dubbed “Shared Growth Cooperation Fund.” Cash-strapped companies can take out loans from the fund. 

LS Cable & System and LSIS teamed up with Shinhan Bank and Woori Bank, respectively, to raise a separate shared growth partnership funds so that secondary and tertiary business partners can borrow easy loans based on the credit of the large-sized companies. LS Mtron implements a full cash payment for settlement of supplies. To this end, the company formed a 4 billion won shared growth cooperation fund with the Industrial Bank of Korea.

The business group has set up a platform to help its cooperative global “hidden champions” by offering such diverse support as manpower, technology and information. In cooperation with the Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), LS handed over their idle proprietary technologies to SMEs and medium-sized superstars for free to prod technology commercialization.